2017 Fantasy LCS Mock Draft

Now that it is Fantasy time yet again, I gathered some of our Fantasy fanatics and LCS experts (some self claimed) together from both sides of the pond to ring in the first official draft of the Summer Split.

Our six drafters were:

David “Phreak” Turley - NA LCS Shoutcaster

Chris “Chopper” Hopper - League Ops / International Lead

Trevor “Quickshot” Henry - EU LCS Shoutcaster

Daniel “Drakos” Drakos - EU LCS Shoutcaster

Tom “TomMartell” Martell - Sacrificial Fantasy Author

Andrew “Vedius” Day - EU LCS Shoutcaster

Round 1​

Phreak: Doublelift - ADC, TSM

Chopper: Bjergsen - MID, TSM

Quickshot: Zven - ADC, G2

Drakos: Jensen - MID, C9

Martell: Sneaky - ADC, C9

Vedius: Perkz - MID, G2

Typically ADCs and Mids produce the highest volume of points for fantasy, as they often have high KDAs and they get a lot of CS. Accordingly, our mock draft followed suit with the top ADCs and Mids coming off the board in Round 1. Phreak stayed true to his NA roots when he made Doublelift the top choice of the draft. Will Doublelift return to his old TSM form this split? Phreak certainly thinks so.

It is no coincidence that all six players this round came from TSM, C9 and G2, the three best teams in LCS. The G2 players are especially interesting given the new EU scoring. G2 will get its score doubled against Mysterious Monkeys (Week 5), Vitality (Week 7) and Ninjas in Pajamas (Week 8), effectively giving them extra games against the consensus bottom three teams in EU. This favorable schedule combined with G2’s expected strong performance sets them even further ahead of the pack. For that reason, I really like Quickshot’s pick of Zven third and Vedius’ pick of Perkz sixth. They both have a great shot at being the top scorers in their positions.

Round 2

Vedius: Febiven - MID, H2K

Martell: PowerOfEvil - MID, MSF

Drakos: Rekkles - ADC, FNC

Quickshot: Hai - MID, FLY

Chopper: Arrow - ADC, P1

Phreak: Ryu - MID, P1

Six more picks and six more volume scorers off the board. Arrow, the Spring Split MVP and the second highest scorer in Fantasy last split, slipped to Chopper with the 11th pick overall (and the fifth ADC taken). If Arrow repeats his performance from last split, this is going to be a big win for Chopper and might be the best value pick in the entire draft.

With the S tier mid laners already off the board, Quickshot may have stretched a little with his selection of Hai with the 10th pick. Hai finished in 5th among mids in points per game, but he really struggled in the second half of the split. He will need to return to the form he showed as Flyquest rattled off their 6-1 start to justify this selection.

This round also saw our first interesting strategy decision. Vedius immediately committed his flex pick by selecting back to back Mids. This gamble may cost him some value in later rounds. Is Febiven really that much better than the top ADCs on the board at this point? If Vedius thinks that the ADC pool is deeper than the Mid pool, he could be squeezing the other teams and deny them a top mid laner while picking up a solid ADC in the next round.

Round 3

Phreak: Contractz - JNG, C9

Chopper: Exileh - MID, UOL

Quickshot: Caps - MID, FNC

Drakos: Trick - JNG, G2

Martell: Vizicsacsi - TOP, UOL

Vedius: Xerxe - JNG, UOL

Round 3 finally breaks the ice for the other positions. Phreak made Contractz the first Jungler off the board, but he almost immediately announced that he regretted his pick when Drakos took Trick a few picks later. Vedius also piled into the Jungle as he wasted no time in selecting last season’s premiere fantasy Jungler, Xerxe, with the last pick of the round. Xerxe averaged almost 19.5 points per game, putting him in the top 5 for fantasy scoring and potentially giving Vedius first round value with the 18th pick.

With my pick this round, I made Vizicsacsi the first Top laner selected. Csacsi was the only Top laner to average more than 19 points, and with Impact mired in a time share situation with Ray, no Top laner came close to matching his productivity last season.

Round 4

Vedius: Mithy - SUP, G2

Martell: Jankos - JNG, H2K

Drakos: Hjarnan - ADC, ROC

Quickshot: Hauntzer - TOP, TSM

Chopper: Svenskeren - JNG, TSM

Phreak: G2 Esports - TEAM, G2

Vedius started off the fourth round with a very early Support selection. Mithy is the last remaining G2 starter, but he only put up a pedestrian 13.9 points per game last split. He will really need to capitalize on some G2 point inflation to justify a fourth round selection.

Phreak also broke new ground by selecting Team G2 at the end of the round, passing up on the chance to take the third Top laner of the draft. While I often see drafters waiting until the last rounds to fill their team slot because teams don’t put up the gaudy point totals you can get from other positions, the relative value of the top teams is actually quite high and there is a steep drop off after the top 4. Our other drafters also recognize this as Phreak’s selection sets off a run on Teams - no one wants to get stuck with a third tier Team.

Round 5

Phreak: Biofrost - SUP, TSM

Chopper: TSM - TEAM, TSM

Quickshot: Smoothie - SUP, C9

Drakos: Expect - TOP, G2

Martell: Cloud9 - TEAM, C9

Vedius: Unicorns of Love - TEAM, UOL

The remaining three top teams come off the board in the 5th round, leaving Drakos and Quickshot to fight over the scraps. Phreak completed his TSM bot lane and doubles down on his Doublelift bet with Biofrost, while Quickshot picked up the other premiere NA support. Smoothie was the best performing Support in Spring by a large margin, so this should be a nice pickup for him. G2 became the second team to be fully drafted as Drakos selected Expect as his Top laner.

Round 6

Vedius: Odoamne - TOP, H2K

Martell: WildTurtle - ADC, FLY

Drakos: Fnatic - TEAM, FNC

Quickshot: H2K - TEAM, H2K

Chopper: Wunder - TOP, SPY

Phreak: Stixxay - ADC, CLG

​Odoamne and Wunder both put up big numbers last split, so Chopper and Vedius pinch the Top pool. This could punish Phreak for delaying his selection. I spent a lot of time debating which ADC to pick up for my Flex slot, and ultimately I decided to gamble on WildTurtle’s reunion with his old pals Balls, Hai and Lemon. He had a solid but uninspiring split in the Spring where he actually finished behind Altec in fantasy scoring. Hopefully his reunion with Lemon will lead to a more fruitful summer.

Round 7

Phreak: Ssumday - TOP, DIG

Chopper: Olleh - SUP, IMT

Quickshot: IgNar - SUP, MSF

Drakos: Chei - SUP, H2K

Martell: Hylissang, - SUP, UOL

Vedius: Kobbe - ADC, SPY

Round 7 saw most of the teams complete their starting rosters as we filled out our flex slots or grabbed our last starter. Quickshot actually misstepped in this round - he forgot that he had already picked up Smoothie and he drafted a second support in Misfit’s IgNar. IgNar actually had a great Spring split, so this pick denied a good Support from both Drakos and myself, but it left Quickshot still short a Jungler.

I’ve seen many EU commentators predicting a big split from Kobbe, and Vedius selected him over the better spring performer in Hans Sama. This may have something to do with the difficult fantasy schedule that Misfits will be facing - they won’t have any of their games against the bottom EU teams doubled, while having five of their six games against the top 2 seeds in each bracket count for double points.

Round 8

Vedius: Alphari - TOP, MSF

Martell: Impact - TOP, C9

Drakos: Darshan - TOP, CLG

Quickshot: Broxah - JNG, FNC

Chopper: Nuclear - ADC, H2K

Phreak: sOAZ - TOP, FNC

The later rounds of the draft are the time for high risk, high reward picks. I quickly snapped up Impact, who would almost certainly have been the first top laner picked if Ray wasn’t taking play time from him. If that situation settles down in Impact’s favor, this could be the steal of the draft.

Round 9

Phreak: Pirean - MID, NV

Chopper: Zig - TOP, P1

Quickshot: Maxlore - JNG, MSF

Drakos: Dardoch - JNG, CLG

Martell: Akaadian - JNG, FOX

Vedius: Aphromoo - SUP, CLG

Quickshot made up for forgetting about the jungle with his second consecutive EU Jungler pick. Maxlore was one of the lowest producing fantasy Junglers last season, but with his new home on Misfits he might be able to turn that around. I was looking to pick up a backup Jungler this round so I could play my weekly matchups and sit Jankos when he plays his doubled matches against G2 and UOL. Unfortunately Drakos sniped Dardoch right out from under me, so I settled for Akaadian. Akaadian had a very volatile rookie split but showed flashes of brilliance. He was the only Jungler with multiple 30 point games (and another game just below at 29.3) - if he figures out how to avoid the meltdowns like his 6 point performance against NV, he has second round potential.

Round 10

Vedius: Trashy - JNG, SPY

Martell: Sencux - MID, SPY

Drakos: Froggen - MID, FOX

Quickshot: Piglet - ADC, TL

Chopper: Mikyx - SUP, SPY

Phreak: LirA - JNG, NV

Quickshot decided to take a last round flier on Piglet, hoping he finds his all-star form in his return to the bot lane. This is a perfect lottery ticket for these late selections. I continued my strategy of hedging my EU starters by picking up Sencux, which will let me sit PowerOfEvil when he is facing a doubled G2 or UOL matchup.

I really like Drakos’ pick of Froggen this round. Even after putting up four very weak matches to close out Spring, Froggen still quietly finished in 6th among Mid laners, including two of the four 33+ point performances (Jensen and Bjergsen each had one). Froggen is an Anivia buff away from being a top pick, which is great value for the last round.

Conclusions

Team Phreak

Top: Ssumday, DIG

Jungle: Contractz, C9

Mid: Ryu, P1

ADC: Doublelift, TSM

Support: Biofrost, TSM

Flex: Stixxay, CLG

Team: G2

Sub: sOAZ, FNC

Sub: Pirean, NV

Sub: LirA, NV

Team Chopper

Top: Wunder, SPY

Jungle: Svensekeren, TSM

Mid: Bjergsen, TSM

ADC: Arrow, P1

Support: Olleh, IMT

Flex: Exileh, UOL

Team: TSM

Sub: Nuclear, H2K

Sub: Zig, P1

Sub: Mikyx, SPY

Team Quickshot​

Top: Hauntzer, TSM

Jungle: Maxlore, MSF

Mid: Hai, FLY

ADC: Zven, G2

Support: Smoothie, C9

Flex: Caps, FNC

Team: H2K

Sub: IgNar, MSF

Sub: Broxah, FNC

Sub: Piglet, TL

Team Drakos

Top: Expect, G2

Jungle: Trick, G2

Mid: Jensen, C9

ADC: Rekkles, FNC

Support: Chei, H2K

Flex: Hjarnan, ROC

Team: FNC

Sub: Darshan, CLG

Sub: Dardoch, CLG

Sub: Froggen, FOX

House of Martell

Top: Vizicsacsi, UOL

Jungle: Jankos, H2K

Mid: PowerOfEvil, MSF

ADC: Sneaky, C9

Support: Hylissang, UOL

Flex: WildTurtle, FLY

Team: C9

Sub: Impact, C9

Sub: Akaadian, FOX

Sub: Sencux, SPY

Team Vedius

Top: Odoamne, H2K

Jungle: Xerxe, UOL

Mid: Perkz, G2

ADC: Kobbe, SPY

Support: Mithy, G2

Flex: Febiven, H2K

Team: UOL

Sub: Alphari, MSF

Sub: Aphromoo, CLG

Sub: Trashy, SPY

I think we ended up with six pretty strong teams, and everyone has a good chance to bring home the title this split. In the end, four teams were fully drafted (G2, TSM, Splyce and H2K), with five more offering up four players each (UOL, Fnatic, Misfits, C9, CLG). Dignitas, Immortals, Team Liquid and ROCCAT each only had one player selected, while Vitality and EU LCS newcomers Ninjas in Pyjamas and Mysterious Monkeys were left untouched.

Who has your favorite team? What was the best and worst picks of the draft? Who are the best players that were left off of our rosters? Will anyone on Vitality, Ninjas in Pyjamas or Mysterious Monkeys emerge and leave us wondering how we missed them?

Share your thoughts in the comments and make sure to jump into a fantasy league with your friends to bring home a title yourself this split.

Tom Martell

Tom Martell is a senior manager on our esports team providing leadership and strategic support across multiple initiatives. When not getting crushed at League, Tom moonlights as a professional Magic the Gathering player. You can reach him on Twitter as @TomMartell.